Systems and methods for pooling disparate point currencies

ABSTRACT

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method including: providing, in a collaboration space, a point conversion interface; passing, via the point conversion interface, user credentials to a third-party point issuer; receiving, via the point conversion interface and from the third-party point issuer, a number of points, wherein the number of points is associated with the user credentials; multiplying the number of points by a conversion factor, wherein the multiplying produces a number of unified points; crediting a points pool associated with a collaboration space, with the number of unified points; and receiving, at the collaboration space and from a user of the collaboration space, an instruction to apply the number of unified points to a travel objective, wherein the travel objective is included on a digital itinerary provided by the collaboration space.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 63/255,750, filed Oct. 14, 2021, the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated, by reference, in its entirety.

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments generally relate to systems and methods for poolingdisparate point currencies.

2. Description of the Related Art

Traditionally, people spend vacation and holiday time traveling togetherwith groups of friends and family. Due to the limitations ofconventional travel planning options, the planning, booking, payment,etc., of vacation and holiday trips tends to fall on a single member ofthe traveling group. Customer research shows that when using onlineresources for planning a vacation, a person may have up to 30 internetbrowser tabs open in order to coordinate itinerary items such asdestination, airfare, flight schedules, hotels/lodging, etc. Such tasksaturation may then be exacerbated by competing information, data,wishes, wants, opinions, schedules, budgets, etc., of the planner'stravel companions. This may lead to an overload of tasks for theplanner; the planner becoming disillusioned with the anticipated travel,and an oversight of preferred travel arrangements for the other membersof the traveling group. Additionally, conventional methods of travelplanning causes missed opportunities for travel service and managementproviders to enhance customers' experience by leveraging information.

SUMMARY

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,including: providing, in a collaboration space, a point conversioninterface; passing, via the point conversion interface, user credentialsto a third-party point issuer; receiving, via the point conversioninterface and from the third-party point issuer, a number of points,wherein the number of points is associated with the user credentials;multiplying the number of points by a conversion factor, wherein themultiplying produces a number of unified points; crediting a points poolassociated with a collaboration space, with the number of unifiedpoints; and receiving, at the collaboration space and from a user of thecollaboration space, an instruction to apply the number of unifiedpoints to a travel objective, wherein the travel objective is includedon a digital itinerary provided by the collaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,wherein the unified points are stored with an association to acontributing user of the collaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,wherein each unified point of the number of unified points is associatedwith a fiat monetary value.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,including: storing the number of points associated with the usercredentials in a user profile of the contributing user.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,including: processing the number of points associated with the usercredentials as input data to a machine learning model.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,including: weighting a first classification of a plurality of predictedtravel objective classifications of the machine learning model with agreater relative weight based on a condition in a variable of acorresponding tree of the first classification indicating that the inputdata includes the number of points associated with the user credentials.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method,including: receiving, as output of the machine learning model, apredicted travel objective that has been classified in the firstclassification by the machine learning model.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a systemincluding one or more computer processors, wherein the one or morecomputer processors are configured to: provide, in a collaborationspace, a point conversion interface; pass, via the point conversioninterface, user credentials to a third-party point issuer; receive, viathe point conversion interface and from the third-party point issuer, anumber of points, wherein the number of points is associated with theuser credentials; multiply the number of points by a conversion factor,wherein the multiplying produces a number of unified points; credit apoints pool associated with a collaboration space, with the number ofunified points; and receive, at the collaboration space and from a userof the collaboration space, an instruction to apply the number ofunified points to a travel objective, wherein the travel objective isincluded on a digital itinerary provided by the collaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein the unified points are stored with an association to acontributing user of the collaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein each unified point of the number of unified points is associatedwith a fiat monetary value.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to store thenumber of points associated with the user credentials in a user profileof the contributing user.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to processthe number of points associated with the user credentials as input datato a machine learning model.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to weight afirst classification of a plurality of predicted travel objectiveclassifications of the machine learning model with a greater relativeweight based on a condition in a variable of a corresponding tree of thefirst classification indicating that the input data includes the numberof points associated with the user credentials.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a system,wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to receive,as output of the machine learning model, a predicted travel objectivethat has been classified in the first classification by the machinelearning model.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructionsstored thereon, which instructions, when read and executed by one ormore computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors toperform steps including: providing, in a collaboration space, a pointconversion interface; passing, via the point conversion interface, usercredentials to a third-party point issuer; receiving, via the pointconversion interface and from the third-party point issuer, a number ofpoints, wherein the number of points is associated with the usercredentials; multiplying the number of points by a conversion factor,wherein the multiplying produces a number of unified points; crediting apoints pool associated with a collaboration space, with the number ofunified points; and receiving, at the collaboration space and from auser of the collaboration space, an instruction to apply the number ofunified points to a travel objective, wherein the travel objective isincluded on a digital itinerary provided by the collaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein the unifiedpoints are stored with an association to a contributing user of thecollaboration space.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein each unifiedpoint of the number of unified points is associated with a fiat monetaryvalue.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, including: storing thenumber of points associated with the user credentials in a user profileof the contributing user.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, including: processingthe number of points associated with the user credentials as input datato a machine learning model.

In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, including: weighting afirst classification of a plurality of predicted travel objectiveclassifications of the machine learning model with a greater relativeweight based on a condition in a variable of a corresponding tree of thefirst classification indicating that the input data includes the numberof points associated with the user credentials; and receiving, as outputof the machine learning model, a predicted travel objective that hasbeen classified in the first classification by the machine learningmodel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram of a collaboration system, in accordancewith aspects.

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of a collaboration system, in accordancewith aspects.

FIG. 2 is a is a diagram of a model tree, in accordance with aspects.

FIG. 3 is a logical flow for providing data-enhanced collaboration forgroup planning, in accordance with aspects.

FIG. 4 is a is a logical flow for providing pooling of disparate pointcurrencies, in accordance with aspects.

FIG. 5 is a logical flow for providing location-based travel objectivenotifications to a mobile device, in accordance with aspects.

FIG. 6 is a logical flow for curated content classification, inaccordance with aspects.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computing device for implementing certainaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram for point currency conversion, inaccordance with aspects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects are directed to enhanced travel experiences through datamanagement.

In accordance with aspects, through the use of machine learning (ML)models trained with iterative and deep learning, and the ability tocollect large amounts of data both at the individual and the grouplevel, aspects of travel platforms described herein, includingcomponents such as planning groups, a collaboration space, userprofiles, and ML models, may be used to train/prepare ML models toproduce a highly inspired, relevant and appreciated travel itinerary fora group of travelers. Such a relevant and appreciated group travelitinerary is not achievable using human travel agents and/orconventional systems due to limitations on data collection andprocessing. Accordingly, aspects enable realization of improved travelplanning and booking through big data collection paired with machinelearning and other technologies, as described herein.

Travel platform, payment product, and other providers have potentialaccess to a wealth of data about travelers. Collection and management ofthis data is challenging, however, not only because it is unstructured,but also because each member of a group that plans to travel togetherdoes not traditionally participate in planning a trip collaboratively.Thus, much of the potential data available to a travel platform providergoes uncollected both at the time of planning, and throughout and afterthe trip. Collection of such collaborative data allows a travel platformprovider to make more accurate predictions about, and make highlyrelevant offers to, a planning group of platform users by employingartificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML).

Machine learning models may be trained based on users' travelinformation to predict what people, groups, and individuals withingroups, will positively respond to. The platform may then makeoffers/suggestions to the travel members within a group throughout thelifecycle of the planned trip.

In accordance with aspects, a comprehensive and inclusive travelplatform allows for ease of inspirational planning and collaborationamong a group of travel companions through data management. A givenmember of the travel group may or may not be a customer of the travelplatform provider. As an additional benefit to the travel platformprovider, in the case where users are not originally customers, use ofthe platform significantly increases the chance that they will becomecustomers of the provider.

In accordance with aspects, each platform user may have a profile storedwith the platform. Existing customers of the platform, or of servicesaffiliated with the platform, may have profiles that include datapreviously collected about them. For instance, a current user may have acredit card or other payment product issued by the platform or anaffiliate/partner of the platform. Transactions charged to the creditcard, including travel/hospitality-related transactions, may be includedin, and/or associated with the existing user's profile. Previous travelbooked through the platform may also be recorded as part of the existinguser's profile. Additionally, information that is volunteered by theuser through questionnaires, surveys, web-forms, etc., may be associatedwith the user's profile.

Users of the platform that are not members of the platform at the timethey first access the platform, may be prompted to setup a profilebefore further use of the platform is made available. A questionnairemay be used to gather initial data about first-time users of theplatform. Data collected from the questionnaire may be associated withthe user's profile. Subsequently, input from the new users may becollected and associated with the users' respective profile or account,that is, the user's collaborative or planning group. This informationmay be combined with data associated with current users' accounts toform a planning group profile, where the planning group profile is basedon the aggregated data associated with the profile of each individualplanning group member.

Examples of user information/data collected and stored by a travelplatform may include past travel history; specific travel details; apreferred airline; how many children a user has; a user's age; othertravel/rewards programs that the user is a member of (e.g., flyingrewards or membership programs, hotel and/or resort rewards membershipprograms, etc.); a number of existing reward points saved in othertravel/rewards programs; food and/or restaurant preferences; hobbies;aggregate dollar amounts spent on leisure over a given time period; etc.Any past travel and leisure data that can be collected about a user maybe valuable in assessing and predicting future travel and leisure that auser or related planning group of users would be interested in. As usedherein, “travel service data” refers to all travel, leisure,hospitality, vacation, and other relevant data that is associated withand collected from a user, and that is aggregated to form a planninggroup profile for an associated planning group of users.

In accordance with aspects, a travel platform may be configured to allowmultiple users to collaborate when making travel plans. Collaborationmay begin with a user initiating/generating a collaboration group (alsoreferred to herein as a planning group) from a platform interface. Theplanning group may include multiple users of the platform. The group maybe populated through an invitation process. Upon acceptance of areceived invitation, another platform user may become a part of theplanning group. Both in-band and out-of-band communication channels maybe used to invite users, or potential users, to join a planning group.Existing users of the platform may receive in-band invitations (e.g., anin-app prompt to join the group). Non-users may receive an invitationthrough other means such as via email or a SMS message, or otherout-of-band communication channels. Users may also, in accordance withaspects, browse to web-based interfaces and search for a shared groupidentifier (ID) or the name of a planning group initiating user (i.e.,an administrative-level user that initiated the planning group), or someother lookup key in order to find and join a planning group.

The initiating user may be given heightened or elevated privileges overthe planning group in order to manage the group. For example, theinitiating user may be given administration rights that includeadding/deleting members from the group. The initiating user may alsohave administration privileges over other aspects of the planning groupdescribed herein and may be able to delegate administrativeresponsibilities to other members of the planning group.

In accordance with aspects, after a planning group is formed,trip-planning collaboration may commence. The collaboration platform mayinclude a collaboration space, which, in turn, may include a planninginterface that is accessible to all planning group members. The planninginterface may provide systems for chat, and the ability to proposepotential destinations, activities, restaurants, flights,hotels/lodging, etc. The planning interface may further include anddisplay a dynamic digital itinerary that lists agreed-upon components ofthe travel plan. Voting may be performed for each proposed itineraryitem by the planning group members. Acceptance of a proposed travelcomponent onto the official digital itinerary for the planning group maybe set as a majority of votes, a supermajority of votes (e.g., threequarters of planning group members), etc. In some aspects, anadministrative user may be able to unilaterally add or remove aline-item from the digital itinerary.

In accordance with aspects, a collaboration space for facilitating groupplanning for travel may include and display tools needed to plan andorganize a travel event for a planning group. The collaboration spacemay include a search function that allows group members to search fordestinations, lodging, airfare, flight schedules, restaurants,activities, etc. The search function may include an internet browser,which may be a conventional or a custom internet browser. A custombrowser may include functionality designed to integrate with airline,hotel, lodging, restaurant, and other travel-related systems orbackends. In other aspects, the browser may be an embedded browser thatis embedded into a mobile application. Integration may allow for saving,reserving, holding, booking, etc., of travel-related services at theplatform provider's backend, or at the particular service provider'sbackend systems.

For example, a collaboration space may allow a planning group member tosearch for lodging at a particular destination, request a hold onlodging (e.g., “hold two hotel rooms for an hour”), send a notice toother group members, and allow other group members to view and vote for,or against, the lodging. If the lodging is accepted via voting criteria(or other criteria), then the collaboration platform may includefunctionality that allows the user to book the lodging (e.g., throughthe custom browser interface, if so equipped). Similar functionality maybe incorporated for plane tickets, restaurant reservations, activityreservations, etc.

In accordance with aspects, the collaboration space may make suggestionsto, and/or may rank search results provided to, planning group usersbased on information collected about the individual users, thecollective information of the group (i.e., the planning group profile),and/or similar users or groups of users. For instance, the profileinformation of each user may be formatted as input for a machinelearning (ML) model and may be processed by the ML model. The collectiveplanning group profile information of the planning group may also beformatted as a unified input to a ML model. Further, any combination ofcollective or individual profile data may be formatted as input to a MLmodel. Output from the ML model may include suggestions fortravel-related services. The output suggestions may be provided to theplanning group users via the collaboration space as proposals, bannerads, etc., for travel destinations, activities, lodging, etc., and maybe selected, saved, held, proposed, voted on, booked, etc., as describedabove through the collaboration space.

In accordance with aspects, data may be sourced from various systems ofthe platform provider and of any partner service providers.Additionally, data may be collected directly from the user. Due to thevariety of systems of record outside of, and from within the platformprovider system collected information may be pre-processed (e.g.,normalized, categorized, deduplicated, etc.) before it is used inconjunction with ML models to derive and rank suggestions for users. Toaccomplish this, preprocessing systems may apply weighting andsemi-supervised and unsupervised learning models such as LinearRegression, Deep Neural Networks, Logistic Regression, Decision Trees,Random Forest, etc.

In accordance with aspects, ML model processing of collected data mayproduce trees of ranked lists of preferences specific to a user or agroup of users (e.g. airports, regions, countries, climates,destinations, art mediums, artists, venues etc.) ultimately allowing thesystem to make personalized, hyper-relevant and timely suggestions suchas travel itinerary that would normally require extensive humancollaboration/research, and time targeted adds, promotions, additionalitinerary items, etc., relevant to users' location and time. Forinstance, a suggestion promoting a store may be sent to a user while theuser is passing by that particular store at, e.g., an airport.

In accordance with aspects, input data to ML models may include threecategories of data: definite information, inferred information, andcontextual information. Each category may be weighted differently withina ML model so as to produce more relevant output from the model. Theplatform may use ML model processing, or rules-based/algorithmicprocessing in order to preprocess, weight, or evaluate data such asthese three types of exemplary data.

Definite information may be given a heaviest relative weighting.Definite information is information that is entered by a platform user(e.g., profile elements), or that results from a user's actions (e.g.,dates, locations of past bookings, etc.).

Inferred information may be given a medium relative weighting. Inferredinformation may be derived from definite information. For example, if aplatform user has indicated, through data entry into the user's profile,that the user has children or that children will be accompanying theuser on a subject vacation or outing, and/or has booked family friendlyproperties or locations in the past, then it maybe inferred by theplatform that family friendly locations or events will be relevant tothe user with respect to future activities.

Contextual information may be given a lightest relative weighting.Contextual information may be derived from past user activity. Forinstance, a user may upload a photo with minors captioned as “family” or“children.” A user may also have had frequent transactions at familyrelated stores or may have purchased family related items.

Given the examples of the data, above, the platform may infer that auser, or planning group users, prefer(s) family friendly locations,properties, activities, etc. The platform may suggest highly relevanttravel-related services based on these inferences.

Other input to a ML model may include objectives expressly provided byplanning group members for the group travel. For example, planning groupmembers may include, or vote on, particular objectives for the grouptravel (e.g., at least one golf outing, at least one beach day, a hikingexcursion, etc.). The objectives may be recorded, shared, voted on,etc., via the collaboration space of the platform. The objectives may beweighted before input to the model. For instance, if a particularobjective receives a majority of votes, it may be heavily weighted,while an objective receiving a minority of votes may be less heavilyweighted. Objectives may be weighted correspondingly to popularity.Accordingly, objectives receiving the most votes may be the most heavilyweighted, objectives receiving the second most votes may be weighted thesecond most heavily, etc.

Travel objectives may also be weighted and suggested according to thepopularity of a given objective as determined by algorithmic or MLprocessing of profile data. That is, if through the processing of aplanning group profile, it is determined that a majority of the planninggroup users play golf, then a golf objective may be suggested to theplanning group or weighted heavily in an ML model that predictsads/suggestions for the planning group. Additionally, travel objectivesthat have been expressly indicated as relevant by one or more of theplanning group members may be weighted accordingly. For instance, givena group of ten planning group members, if 5 of the members (via aquestionnaire, survey, etc.) indicate that a golf outing is desired,while 3 indicate that a live performance is desired, and the remaining 2indicate that a historical tour is desired, a machine learning model maybe configured to appropriately weight these classifications accordingly.

For a given ML prediction, a corresponding selection of travelobjectives may be provided to the planning group for selection, voting,discussion, etc. That is, if a ML model predicts that a given planninggroup will want to experience a golf outing, several golf offers may bedisplayed to the planning group through the collaboration space. Thesegolf objectives may be offers from partners of the platform provider.Predications may consider platform provider and partner service providerpreferences to optimize value to the platform users. For example, a golfouting provided by partner service provider might be of higher value tothe planning group users. These platform/partner preferred predictionsmay be weighted heavier than comparative, but otherwise relevant, golfouting service offers/travel objectives.

Likewise, other predicted travel objectives may be provided by a MLmodel and offers for various classes of predictions may be displayed tousers of the collaboration space. Travel objectiveclassifications/predictions may include such leisure activities as liveperformances, movies, gambling venues, golf courses, public beaches,shopping venues, restaurants, resorts, etc.

Exemplary ML models may be trained using historical travel data fromexisting customers of the platform, public data sources, purchased data,travel related reviews, etc. Additionally, new profile data and traveldetails from itineraries or profile data generated within the platform,or from outside the platform, may be used to iteratively train the MLmodel with new/more data. Moreover, a ML model may be trained todetermine historic planning groups with similar profiles as a currentplanning group and make similar predictions as to travel objectives forthe current planning group as were made for the historic planning group.

In accordance with aspects, as ML models have access to more of theabove defined information and learn from customer validation/dismissalof platform choices (e.g., user votes for/selects the system suggestedtop choice), the model predictions should become more accurate and overtime may simply require platform users acceptance of a suggested digitalitinerary.

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram of a collaboration system, in accordancewith aspects. System 100 includes platform provider backend 101, webinterface 112, collaboration service 114, data preprocessor 115, machinelearning engine 116, data store 118, and external API gateway 120. Alsodepicted are user devices 102-107, partner provider backend 130 andpartner provider backend 132.

In accordance with aspects, platform provider backend 101 represents thebackend technology infrastructure of a travel collaboration platformprovider (also referred to as a travel platform provider). Partnerprovider backend 130 and partner provider backend 132 represent thebackend technology infrastructures of organizations that partner with atravel platform provider. For instance, partner provider backend 130 andpartner provider backend 132 may be the backend technologyinfrastructures of an airline company, a lodging (e.g., hotel chain)company, a dining/restaurant company, etc. These infrastructures includeservers, computers, software applications, computer network mediums, andcomputer networking hardware and software for providing electronicservices based on computer software applications executing on requisitehardware. Exemplary hardware and software include webservers,application servers, communication servers such as email servers and SMSservers, network routers, switches and firewalls, custom-developedsoftware applications (including hardware to execute such applicationson), etc.

In accordance with aspects, platform provider backend 101, partnerprovider backend 130, and partner provider backend 132 may each includea respective private network that facilitates operative communicationamong system components included therein. Additionally, these backendinfrastructures may be configured to interface with a public network inorder to facilitate communications with hardware and softwarecomponents, and other backend infrastructures that are outside of eachrespective backend infrastructure. Such a public network may be e.g.,the Internet.

Components of platform provider backend 101, partner provider backend130, and partner provider backend 132, and each of user devices 102-107may be communicatively coupled to public and private networks withappropriate hardware and software at the network layer. For instance,user devices 102-107 may include a wired or wireless network interfacecard (NIC) that interfaces with a public network, such as the internet,and is configured with appropriate communication protocols. Likewise,components of platform provider backend 101, partner provider backend130, and partner provider backend 132 may include hardware (NICs,switches, routers, etc.) configured with appropriate protocols forintercommunication across a public network.

At the application layer, the various components of FIG. 1 a may beconfigured to communicate via any suitable method. For instance,communication may be configured via various application programminginterfaces (APIs). APIs may be internal APIs (i.e., only accessiblewithin the bounds of a private communication network), or they may beexternal facing APIs. External API gateway 120 may be a partner API thatrequires access rights from the providing party (e.g., platform providerbackend 101) in order to gain access and facilitate operativecommunication. External API gateway 120 may be accessible to partnerorganizations, such as partner provider backend 130, and partnerprovider backend 132, via a public network such as the Internet. Partnerprovider backend 130 and partner provider backend 132 may communicatewith collaboration service 114 via API calls to External API gateway120. APIs, whether internal or external, may be based on any suitableAPI architecture. Exemplary API architectures and/or protocols includeSOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), XML-RPC, REST (RepresentationalState Transfer), or the like.

In accordance with aspects, and with continued to reference to FIG. 1 a, user devices 102-107 may be mobile devices, laptop computers, desktopcomputers, or any suitable electronic device for accessing web-basedcontent. User devices 102-107 may store and execute web browserapplications for browsing to web interface 112. Alternatively, oradditionally, user devices 102-107 may store and execute a customapplication (e.g., a mobile application) provided by a travelcollaboration platform provider that interfaces with platform providerbackend 101 and is configured to provide operative communication withplatform provider backend 101 via web interface 112. In accordance withaspects, web interface 112 may be a public facing website that is hostedby a web server included in platform provider backend 101. In otheraspects, web interface 112 may be an API with publicly exposed methodshosted by a web server, or API server included in platform providerbackend 101.

While FIG. 1 a depicts user devices 102-107, it is contemplated thatsystem 100 may support a large number of user devices in operativecommunication with platform provider backend 101 via web interface 112.Accordingly, user devices 102-107 are not mean to be limiting as to thenumber of devices that may access platform provider backend 101 but aremerely representative of a number of devices used by planning groupusers who wish to collaboratively plan using platform provider backend101 and the components thereof.

In accordance with aspects, collaboration service 114 may becommunicatively coupled to web interface 112 and may receive incomingelectronic transmissions from user devices of users associated with aplanning group. Collaboration service 114 may host a collaboration spaceserver application (a “collaboration space”). The collaboration spacemay be accessible via a planning interface. The planning interface maybe accessed by client devices (e.g., user devices 102-107) via a webbrowser or a client application (e.g., a mobile application) that isconfigured to be communicatively coupled to collaboration service 114via web interface 112. The collaboration space may be centrallyaccessible to all members of a planning group via a public network suchas the internet. The collaboration space may be a server-basedapplication hosted by an application server included in platformprovider backend 101.

In accordance with aspects, collaboration service 114 may becommunicatively coupled to data store 118. Data store 118 may be anysuitable data store and may represent multiple data stores housed inplatform provider backend 101. In some aspects, data store 118 may be anenterprise data warehouse that aggregates data from different sourcesand makes the data available for data analysis, data mining, andartificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) operations. Adata warehouse may include a server that performs extract, transform,and load (ETL), or extract, load, and transform (ELT) operations on datareceived from multiple sources. The ELT and/or ETL operations mayinclude preparatory operations such as cleaning, standardizing,normalizing, and/or other data operations. A data warehouse may persistreceived data to a relational database, an online analytical processing(OLAP) database, or another appropriate type of database. The datawarehouse may also include a user interface, reporting tools, and/orpublished private or public application programming interfaces (APIs)for programmatic submission and retrieval of data stored therein. Insome aspects, data store 118 may alternatively, or additionally, be arelational database, a data lake, or any other suitable data store.

Data store 118 may be communicatively coupled to collaboration service114 and may receive create, read, update, and/or delete commands fromcollaboration service 114. For example, data store 118 may store theuser profiles of each member of a particular planning group.Additionally, data store 118 may store an aggregated planning groupprofile that is generated by combining profile data from each individualmember of a planning group.

In accordance with aspects, machine learning engine 116 may be inoperative communication with collaboration service 114, datapreprocessor 115 (not shown), and data store 118. Machine learningengine 116 may include a machine learning model, a training service, avariable aggregator service, and other component services for trainingand tuning a machine learning model, and for generating predictions fora given data set using a machine learning model.

In accordance with aspects, respective users of user devices 102-107 maycomprise members of a planning group. One of the respective users, e.g.,the user of user device 102, may be the initiating user of the planninggroup. The user of user device 102 may be a current customer of a travelplatform provider that provides platform provider backend 101. Thetravel collaboration platform provider may also provide other goods andservices, such as payment services, payment products (e.g., credit cardsand/or credit accounts), etc. The user of user device 102 may have anexisting profile stored on data store 118. The user of user device 102may interact with a planning interface displayed on user device 102 togenerate a collaboration space. The collaboration space may beassociated with the user profile of the user of user device 102, whichmay be stored in data store 118. As the initial requestor of thecollaboration space, the user associated with user device 102 may belabeled as the initiating user by collaboration service 114.

The initiating user may send in-band or out-of-band invitationcommunications to fellow travel collaborators. For instance, the user ofuser device 102 may send invitations to the initiated collaborationspace to the respective users of user devices 103-107. The users of userdevices 103-107 may respond via an instance of a planning interfacedisplayed on the users' respective devices. Some of these users may becurrent customers of the travel platform provider and may have existinguser profiles stored at data store 118. Other of these users may not becurrent customers of the travel collaboration platform provider and maybe prompted to setup a user profile by collaboration service 114.

The user profile of each planning group user of a collaboration spacemay be associated with the collaboration space. A planning group profilemay be created and stored in data store 118. The planning group profilemay interrelate each planning group member's profile with a lookup key,such that collaboration service 114 and machine learning engine 116 mayquery, access, process, etc., the aggregated profile data of all of themembers of a given planning group associated with a collaboration space.

In accordance with aspects, any data associated with platform users, andaccessible to the platform may be stored in data store 118 and used asinput to machine learning engine 116. Because data and data sets may becaptured in disparate formats, configurations, compilations, etc., datamay be pre-processed (e.g., normalized, categorized, deduplicated, etc.)before it is stored in data store 118 and used as input to machinelearning engine 116 to derive and rank predictions for platform users.To accomplish this, data preprocessor 115 may apply weighting andsemi-supervised and unsupervised learning models such as LinearRegression, Deep Neural Networks, Logistic Regression, Decision Trees,Random Forest, etc., that appropriately format, compile, vectorize, andotherwise normalize data before storage in data store 118 and input tomachine learning engine 116. Data preprocessor 115 may receive andnormalize data, directly or indirectly (e.g., via collaboration service114), from any relevant system of record of platform provider backend101, a partner provider, or any other source as necessary or desired.

In accordance with aspects, data from user profiles, planning groupprofiles, systems of record, transaction systems, partner systems, andanywhere data associated with a user of planning group can be accessed,may be exposed to, and processed by, a machine learning model as inputfeatures. Given an input feature, a machine learning model may generatea prediction—that is, a recommendation or suggestion—based on the input.A ML model may be trained on historic data sets. Historic data sets canbe data sets that are relevant to the input features. For example, if amodel will be used to predict relevant offers based on current travelservice data, then historic travel service data sets can be used totrain the model. Training of a decision tree model may learn an optimalsplitting of variables included in input features based on historictraining data in order to form a trained model tree with which toevaluate input features and generate accurate predictions given currenttravel service data set as an input feature.

In accordance with aspects, variables of input feature datasets mayrepresent nodes in a model's trees. Variables may be aggregated fromhistoric input feature data sets and used to build the model and itstrees. Many variables (in some cases, thousands) can be considered andutilized in model development. Model variables can include conditions(i.e., decisions, or questions, that must be answered as a tree istraversed), based on a training travel service dataset. The model mapsthe numerous variables of a current input feature dataset to anaggregated and weighted outcome (i.e., a classification, or“prediction”) based on the “decisions” with respect to each variable ina tree. Model variables and conditions associated therewith route modelinput to a leaf node, which resides at the end of a tree.

A string of variables is, collectively, a tree, and a tree may befurther divided into tree splits. The model may build thousands of treesbased on the aggregated variables. At the end of a tree is a leaf nodethat ultimately classifies the input feature. The classification may bethe model's “prediction” for a given input feature. For a group of inputfeatures (e.g., a similar input feature for each group member of aplanning group) the model may end with several different predictions.The model may be configured to average the predictions for several inputfeature datasets in order to produce a single prediction for theplanning group. Moreover, different trees may be weighted according todifferent criteria in order to produce a weighted average, which makesclassification in a certain leaf node by the model more relevant to theoutcome. A resultant weighted average may be the basis for a suggestion,ad, etc., that is presented to a planning group via a collaborationspace.

FIG. 2 is a is a diagram of a model tree, in accordance with aspects.Model tree 200 is an exemplary ML model tree that may be trained andused in a machine learning engine for making ML predictions. Model tree200 includes input features 202. Input features 202 represent an inputdata set. Exemplary model input data may include travel service datafrom a user profile or a planning group profile. Variables 204 areconditions related to input features. Variables 204 represent conditionsrelevant to the input feature dataset. For example, a model trained toproduce an activity travel objective suggestion may include variablessuch as “budget,” and “interests,” and may include conditions related tothese variables such as “>$1000” and “outdoors,” respectively. Inputfeature 202 can be routed based on conditions through tree splits ofvariables 204 to a leaf variable.

Leaf variables 206 are the end of a given tree, and result in aclassification of the input feature. For instance, if a given inputfeatures dataset (e.g., a profile of a planning group user) includes abudget attribute of $1500, and a binary indicator that an outdooractivity is preferred over an indoor activity, then the model may resultin a “classification” of “golf.” That is to say that the model maypredict that the user whose profile was processed as input featureswould like to play golf. Of course, many other variables may be part ofa decision tree of a model. Moreover, certain trees may be weighted moreheavily that other trees. Weights 208 represent a weight given to eachtree. A classifier may consider the weight assigned to each tree whenmaking a prediction for several input feature datasets. Prediction 210represents the ultimate prediction of the model 200 for a given set ofinput feature dataset. Prediction 210 may be a weighted average of eachclassification outcome.

FIG. 3 is a logical flow for providing data-enhanced collaboration forgroup planning, in accordance with aspects.

Step 305 includes interrelating, in a database, respective data profilesfor each of a plurality of users of a collaboration platform.

Step 310 includes processing data from each of the respective dataprofiles as input data to a machine learning model.

Step 315 includes receiving, as output of the machine learning model, aplurality of predicted travel objective classifications.

Step 320 includes displaying, via a planning interface of acollaboration space of the collaboration platform, a plurality of travelobjectives, wherein each of the plurality of travel objectives isassociated with one of the plurality of predicted travel objectiveclassifications.

Step 325 includes receiving, from a first user of the plurality ofusers, input with respect to a first travel objective of the pluralityof travel objectives.

Step 330 includes adding the first travel objective to a digitalitinerary maintained by the collaboration space.

In accordance with aspects, continued collaboration by the planninggroup users using the collaboration space of the platform may generate asingle finalized digital travel itinerary for the planning groupmembers. A planning group member may provide/perform any needed booking,reservation, payment, etc., of travel activities or services, e.g.,through the collaboration space of the platform. This may beaccomplished, e.g., via partner providers having technology backends inoperative communication with a collaboration service of the platformprovider.

Planning group members, whether long-time or first-time users of theplatform, may be members of travel-related organizations (including thesubject platform provider's organization) that provide “points” or othertypes of tokens to users/customers as a form of currency. Such pointcurrencies (also referred to herein as “points”) are commonly awarded tocustomers of the granting organizations as rewards for purchases madethrough and/or with the organizations. These point currencies arecommonly referred to as “reward” points, or “loyalty” points.

Received points may generally be “spent” on (i.e., credited against theprice of) goods and services provided through the granting organization.The goods and services may be provided by the granting organization orby a third party. For example, an airline customer may use a credit cardaffiliated with the airline and may be granted points for using thecredit card. The points may then be used as a credit against planetickets provided by the airline, or other goods or services provided bythird parties in affiliation with the airline. Reward points systems arecommonly granted by travel-related organizations for transactionsbooked, purchased, etc., through the respective organization. Planninggroup members may wish to apply these accumulated reward points as aform of credit against the cost of the travel services booked accordingto the final digital itinerary.

In accordance with aspects, a travel platform provider may provide areward/loyalty point pool that allows travel group members to contributedisparate travel points to a common group points pool (or account), fromwhich the final digital itinerary can be fully or partially funded.

The points pool may allow disparate point values/currencies to beconverted into a common or unified point currency (also referred toherein as “unified points”). The points pool may be associated with theplanning group and may be exclusive to the planning group members. Itmay, for example be generated at creation of the planning group or thecollaboration space and may be accessible, configurable, and/or editablefrom the collaboration space. The points pool maybe generated by theinitiating user, or there may be a points pool included with by defaultwith each instance of a collaboration space. For instance, a point poolmay be a group level account that is credited by the planning groupmembers with points from disparate travel organizations/vendors and ofdisparate values. The travel platform may convert the contributed pointsinto a unified-value point currency (i.e., into unified points).

In accordance with aspects, the collaboration space may include, orprovide, a point conversion interface for transferring points from othertravel-related organizations to a points pool of the travel platform.The collaboration space may facilitate interfacing with a third-partypoint issuer's public interface and/or point-storage system. Thethird-party point issuer may be a partner provider. The collaborationspace may further facilitate determining a number of points associatedwith a planning group member's third-party points account, convertingthe reward points according to a set of conversion equations to a numberof unified points and crediting the loyalty points pool with the numberof unified reward points.

The point conversion interface may allow for a planning group member toprovide login credentials to the third-party point issuer's pointstorage system. After authentication to the third-party system, thepoint conversion interface may use, e.g., an application programminginterface (API) to interact, programmatically, with the third-partysystem. For instance, there may be methods exposed by the API toretrieve a number and or a type of points reflected in the third-partysystem as associated with the planning group member. There may also bemethods/functionality that the point conversion interface may utilize todebit or deduct a specified number of points from the third-party pointledger system.

A point conversion API may expose/provide various methods. For example,an identification/authorization method may be provided to authenticateplatform users using platform identification parameters and parametersregistered with partner providers. Such a method may trigger a partnerprovider's validation scheme. The method may trigger sending of an SMSincluding a code (e.g., a one-time password) to a user's phone number.Methods may return a total number of available points and/or othermembership details (e.g. membership status level), a terms andconditions acceptance, etc. Methods may also include a transfer methodthat includes a group ID of the relevant planning group, a number ofpoints to be transferred, spending rules (can points be used for generalpurpose or partner products only, or specified types of products), etc.Such a method may invoke conversion rates predetermined with partner(e.g. this could be one rate for all spend types, or dedicated rates fordifferent spend types or groups of types).

In accordance with aspects, the number of points transferred from thethird-party point provider's system may be converted into unified pointsaccording to a set of conversion equations. Conversion logic may bebased on predetermined (i.e., with the relevant partner provider)conversion rules and rates stored by the platform or retrieved frompartner in real time. Rules may include a singular conversion rateregardless of the future spend of the converted mount, or may be morecomplex, including many rates associated with rules determining how theconverted points could be spent at using specific rates (e.g., a hotelpartner may allow a better rate if points will be spent on theirproperty but a less favorable rate for all other hotels, and even lessfavorable for flights and/or other spends). The set of conversionequations may be stored as tables, executable code, etc., and may beaccessible to the platform. The conversion equations may be based onnegotiations between the travel platform provider and third-party pointproviders. For example, the platform provider may agree to reimburse thethird-party point provider an amount, or a fractional amount, of fiatcurrency (e.g., U.S. dollars) for each point converted to a unifiedpoint.

Payment of the negotiated rate for conversion of points by the platformprovider to the third-party point provider may happen immediatelythrough available payment channels, or conversion amounts may berecorded and invoiced on a periodic basis.

In accordance with aspects, converted third-party points (unifiedpoints) may be contributed to the points pool. The unified points may berepresented as data and stored in a datastore accessible by theplatform. Points contributed to the points pool may include anassociation with the contributing planning group member. Additionally,contributed points may have an association with the points pool and/orthe collaboration space initiated by the planning group.

Unified points may be stored digitally (e.g., in a relational database)as an integer value if fractional points are not awarded, as afloating-point decimal or double if fractional values are desired, or asany other primitive or reference data type as necessary or desirable.The unified point representations may be stored with a relationshippointer to the contributing planning-group user and/or to the pointspool or collaboration space to which the planning-group membercontributed the points. Additional relationship pointers may referenceassociated conversion rules, and the original issuing organization orpartner provider.

In accordance with aspects, points can be donated and applied to travelobjections included on the digital itinerary for the planning group inunequal portions. E.g., a first group member may contribute 100,000points while a second group member may contribute 10,000 points. Given aunified point value system, a fiat monetary-equivalent value may beapplied to donated points, and this monetary equivalent may be deductedfrom the donator's balance owed for the planned travel. For example, ifa point value of $0.01 US dollars is assigned to each unified point,then the first group member (i.e., the donator of 100,000 points) may becredited $1000 US dollars towards their share of the balance owed forthe planned trip. Likewise, the second group member may be credited($100 US dollars).

In accordance with aspects, if a particular planning group memberdonates enough unified points to the relevant points pool that the firstuser has a credit balance in a fiat currency (e.g., US dollars) afterapplication to their balance due for the planned travel, the points maybe applied to another planning group member's balance. The points may beapplied at the first member's discretion, e.g., arbitrarily orequationally (e.g., evenly across all travel companions' balance due).The travel companions that have received credit to their balance owedmay then use a fund-transferring method made available through theplatform to reimburse the first user for the donated points. In aspects,the platform may inform the travel companions that have received acredit from the first user of the amount of the credit and prompt themto reimburse the first user via the fund-transferring method.

In accordance with aspects, the platform may facilitate application ofsome third-party points without conversion to unified points. Forexample, the platform may match disparate third-party points to itemsthey apply to on the itinerary.

In accordance with aspects, data indicating the types of third-partypoints being converted to unified points by planning group members maybe used in conjunction with machine learning models (as discussed,above). Third party points data may be used as training data for MLmodels and may also be used as input data to ML models for achievingoutput predictions of travel objectives that a relevant platform usermay be interested in. For example, ML output based on points input datamay be used to provide ads/suggestions in the collaboration spaceinterface to planning group members when collaborating on a travelitinerary.

In accordance with aspects, the user profile of a contributing user ofunified points may store, as travel service data, a number ofthird-party points that have been converted into unified points. Thestored number of third-party points may be indicative of travelpreferences of the contributing user and may be used as a weightingfactor in a ML model. For example, a number of third-party points froman air travel provider may indicate a preferred airline of thecontributing user. In another example, a number of third-party pointsfrom a dining provider may indicate a restaurant that the contributinguser prefers. Classifications of a ML model whose corresponding treeshave variables and conditions that indicate a user profile (used as aninput dataset) includes third-party points, and that include the originof the third-party points (e.g., the particular air travel provider ordining provider) may be weighted with a relatively higher weight.Accordingly, all other outcomes being equal, the corresponding user mayreceive, as output of the ML model, predictions of travel objectivesprovided by the third-party point provider.

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of a collaboration system, in accordancewith aspects. FIG. 1 b includes point conversion interface 122, pointAPI 124, point API 126, and point conversion engine 140. Pointconversion interface 122 may be accessible to planning group users viacollaboration service 114. Point conversion interface 122 maycommunicate with partner providers via public API provided by thepartner providers. Point API 124 may be a public or partner API thatprovides access, via point conversion interface 122 to a contributinguser's third-party point balance, where the third-party points areissued by partner provider backend 132. Likewise, point API 126 may be apublic or partner API that provides access, via point conversioninterface 122 to a contributing user's third-party point balance, wherethe third-party points are issued by partner provider backend 130.

In accordance with aspects, point conversion interface 122 mayfacilitate parameterized method calls to methods exposed by point API124 and point API 126. For example, point API 124 and/or point API 126may expose an authentication method that takes a username and a passwordparameter of a user of partner provider backend 132 or partner providerbackend 130, respectively. Point conversion interface 122 may prompt acontributing user for a username and password and pass the username andpassword as parameters of the authentication method, and theauthentication method may return an indication of login success orfailure to point conversion interface 122.

Other exemplary methods may include a get-balance method that takes akey identifier of a point account as a parameter and returns a balanceof the account associated with the key identifier. An exemplary keyidentifier may be a username or account number. Another exemplary methodmay be a transfer-funds method that takes an integer or other data typethat indicates a number of points to transfer to platform providerbackend 101.

In accordance with aspects, point conversion engine 140 may receivethird-party points from point conversion interface 122 and convert themto unified points. Point conversion engine 140 may include conversiontable that include conversion equations for different third-partypoints. The table may include a lookup key, and incomingpoint-conversion requests may include the lookup key, which identifiesthe appropriate conversion rule. The conversion rules may include aconversion factor, and the third-party points may be multiplied by theconversion factor in order to calculate an appropriate number of unifiedpoints with which to credit a points pool. The conversion rules may beupdated periodically based on agreements between the platform providerand partner providers that issue third-party points.

The converted points may then be stored as unified points in data store118. The converted points may be stored with a relation or associationto the user profile of the contributing user and to the collaborationspace from which the third-party points were converted. The unifiedpoints may be displayed via the planning interface in a unified pointspool for the collaboration space. A unified points pool may includepoints aggregated from all contributing users of the collaborationspace. In some aspects, the unified points pool may also display thenumber of unified points contributed by each respective contributinguser.

Data store 118 may further be configured to store the origin and numberof third-party points in an associated user's profile. Accordingly, thenumber and/or origin of the third-party points may be made available asinput to machine learning engine 116 as input feature data andclassification weighting considerations.

FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram for point currency conversion, inaccordance with aspects. FIG. 8 includes travel platform interface 812,collaboration service 814, partner provider backend 832, and partnerprovider interface 834.

With continued reference to FIG. 8 , at step 840, a platform user mayselect a partner provider and enter authentication information for theselected partner provider. Travel platform interface 812 may pass theselected partner provider and the received authentication information tocollaboration service 814 at step 842. At step 844, collaborationservice 814 may pass the authentication information to partner providerbackend 832 and may request authentication via an authentication methodof a partner API. At step 844, partner provider backend 832 may requestconfirmation of the authentication from the platform user via partnerprovider interface 834. Partner provider interface 834 may be an in-bandcommunication channel, such as a mobile application of the partnerprovider. Alternatively, partner provider interface 834 may be anout-of-band communication channel such as an email message, SMS message,etc. The user may receive the communication and respond with aconfirmation of the requested authentication at step 846.

Continuing with step 847 of FIG. 8 , partner provider backend 832 maysend validation and membership details for the user to collaborationservice 814. Collaboration service 814 may, in turn, display thereceived membership details at travel platform interface 812 for theuser to view at step 848. Membership details may include a number ofavailable issuer points. At step 850, the user may input a number ofissuer points to be converted into unified points. At step 852,collaboration service 814 may request a transfer from partner providerbackend 832 of the number of issuer points. This may be via, e.g., anAPI method call. At step 854, partner provider backend 832 may respondto collaboration service 814 with a return communication validating thetransfer. Partner provider backend 832 may perform processing to debitthe number of points indicated for conversion on its systems of record.At step 856, collaboration service 814 may execute one or moreconversion methods/algorithms as discussed in more detail, herein. Oncethe points have been converted according to applicable conversion rules,collaboration service 814 may respond with a conversion confirmation totravel platform interface 812 at step 858.

FIG. 4 is a is a logical flow for providing pooling of disparate pointcurrencies, in accordance with aspects.

Step 405 incudes providing, in a collaboration space, a point conversioninterface.

Step 410 includes passing, via the point conversion interface, usercredentials to a third-party point issuer.

Step 415 includes receiving, via the point conversion interface and fromthe third-party point issuer, a number of points, wherein the number ofpoints is associated with the user credentials.

Step 420 includes multiplying the number of points by a conversionfactor, wherein the multiplying produces a number of unified points.

Step 425 includes crediting a points pool associated with acollaboration space, with the number of unified points.

Step 430 includes receiving, at the collaboration space and from a userof the collaboration space, an instruction to apply the number ofunified points to a travel objective, where the travel objective isincluded on a digital itinerary provided by the collaboration space.

In accordance with aspects, and as described above, planning groupmembers may collaborate on travel plans via a collaboration space of atravel platform, they may finalize a digital itinerary, and they maybook and pay for the travel services listed on the itinerary throughfunctionality provided by the collaboration space. Planning groupmembers may then embark on the planned travel in accordance with thefinalized itinerary. In accordance with aspects, a travel platform mayprovide location-based benefits in the form of ads, offers, etc., basedon a user's location as indicated by the finalized itinerary inconjunction with a user's linked device, such as a mobile device, smartwatch, etc.

In accordance with aspects, a finalized digital itinerary may be used bya collaboration service of a travel platform to predict a user'slocation at a particular date and even at a particular time. Forinstance, a platform may have access to a digital itinerary thatindicates that a user will be flying out of a particular airport on aparticular date and at a particular time, will be laid over at a secondairport on the same date starting at a particular time and ending atanother time and will be arriving in a third airport/city on the samedate at yet another time.

In accordance with aspects, the platform interface may prompt a user togive the platform access to location services of the user's device. Thismay be done, e.g., through a mobile device application provided by theplatform provider and executing on the planning group user's mobiledevice (e.g., user device 102 as shown in FIG. 1 ). In other aspects,location reporting services may be enabled through a mobile web browser.A location report received from a user device may include the user'slocation presented in GPS coordinate data, and a timestamp of therecorded location. A collaboration service may request the locationreport including location data, and the device may respond with thelocation data in near-real time. Accordingly, location data mayrepresent an accurate location of the user device and, presumably, theuser of the device as well.

In accordance with aspects, a GPS tracked location of the user's mobiledevice may be used by a collaboration service to determine the user'slocation. Moreover, a digital itinerary finalized for the planning groupby the collaboration service may be used by the collaboration service inconjunction with the user's provided GPS location to provide additionalcontext and precision with respect to the user's GPS location. Thecollaboration service may use a timestamp included with the receivedlocation data, or may use a current system time, as a lookup key whenquerying or parsing a digital itinerary associated with the user of thelocation-reporting device. The collaboration service may use adetermined time to parse a time window field or column of a digitalitinerary for a match, an approximate match, or inclusion in the timewindow of the determined time. The collaboration service may thencross-reference a related field of the digital itinerary to determine acorresponding location on the digital itinerary. This correspondinglocation may then be verified using the received location data from theuser's mobile device to determine 1) that the user in the generalvicinity of the corresponding location from the digital itinerary, and2) to further determine a precise location of the user based on, e.g.,the report GPS coordinates received from the mobile device.

As noted above, profile data of each planning group member (individuallyand/or collectively) may be processed by a ML model and the output maybe predictions of travel related goods and/or services that will appealto an individual user or to the collective planning group (alternatelyreferred to herein as service offers, travel-related services and/ortravel objectives). Exemplary travel objectives include any consumablegood or service offered by a vendor, merchant, organization, etc. Forexample, goods such as food, beverages, clothing, toys, trinkets,electronics, household items, etc., and services such as restaurants,bars, movie theatres, shoe shining, massages, concerts, sporting events,etc.

In accordance with aspects, a travel platform may determine that a userwill be in a location on a particular date and at a particular time. Theplatform may further determine a travel objective offered by a vendor inor near the particular place that the user will be and during theparticular time that the user will be there. The platform mayelectronically present to the user, in the form of an advertisement,offer, etc., and via the planning interface of a collaboration spaceprovided by a collaboration service, the travel objective. The travelobjective may be highly appealing to the user and the user may not haveotherwise been aware of the travel objective but for the presentation ofthe service offer by the platform.

In an exemplary scenario, a machine learning model may predict (based onprevious transaction data, previous location and travel data, etc.,associated with a platform user's profile) that consuming a beverageduring a layover at an airport will be highly appealing to the user. Theplatform may have data (e.g., from a digital itinerary created withinthe platform) indicating that the user will be laid over in an airportat the same time a restaurant in the airport is offering discounts onbeverages (i.e., a service offer from the restaurant's perspective, anda travel objective from the platform user's perspective). Moreover, thetravel platform may receive location data from user's mobile deviceindicating that the user is within a predefined proximate area of therestaurant. Accordingly, the platform may present to the user theservice offer of the restaurant. Other service offers determined by thetravel platform to correspond to other various locations and timeslisted on the user's digital itinerary may be presented to the user atthe appropriate time and when the user is within a predefined proximatearea of the offering organization.

Users may find such targeted service offers highly appealing and mayavail themselves of the service offers. This may cause users to place ahigh value on the services provided by the travel platform and ensurecontinued use of the platform by users. Moreover, verified interactionand acceptance of such targeted service offers may be used to validateand further train ML models used to generate the service offers.

In accordance with aspects, service offers/travel objectives may be sentto a user's mobile device in any suitable manner. The communicationchannel used by the collaboration service to send travel objectivenotifications may be based on a user's preference as indicated bysettings configured by the user. The notifications may be in-band or outof band with respect to the collaboration service. Exemplarynotification channels include in-application push notifications, SMSmessages, MMS messages, email messages, etc.

In accordance with aspects, service offers may be presented to a user ofthe platform in a trackable way. For example, an offer may be presentedto the user in the form of an advertisement including a trackableidentifier, such as a bar code, a QR code, etc. In order to receive thegood/service specified in the service offer, the user may have topresent the service offer to the vendor/merchant for scanning or someother fashion of recordation. Thus, both the merchant and the platformprovider can record data showing that the prediction that the offer waspredicated on was accurate. This data can be used to further train theML model, thereby enhancing the accuracy of the model's predictions.Additionally, the merchant can factor this data when purchasing furtheradds from the vendor.

FIG. 5 is a logical flow for providing location-based travel objectivenotifications to a mobile device, in accordance with aspects.

Step 505 includes receiving, by a collaboration service, location dataof a user, wherein the user is a user of the collaboration service, andwherein the location data includes a timestamp.

Step 510 includes verifying, by the collaboration service and based on adigital itinerary associated with the user, a location of the user.

Step 515 includes processing data from a data profile associated withthe user as input data to a machine learning model.

Step 520 includes receiving, by the collaboration service and as outputof the machine learning model, a plurality of predicted travel objectiveclassifications.

Step 525 includes determining, by the collaboration service, a pluralityof travel objectives, wherein each of the plurality of travel objectivesis associated with one of the plurality of predicted travel objectiveclassifications.

Step 530 includes determining, by the collaboration service, a travelobjective within a predefined proximity of the location of the user.

Step 535 includes displaying the travel objective to the user via aplanning interface.

In accordance with aspects, the travel platform, based on the known datafrom the digital itinerary, may, at the end of the travel period orafter an itinerary event or service is scheduled to take place, send theplanning group users requests for reviews of the travel services listedon the itinerary and/or any travel objectives provided as ads orsuggestions throughout the travel period. The review request may be indigital form and may be delivered electronically via a planninginterface of the travel platform. Exemplary review questions may pertainto each group member's experience with each item on the itinerary (e.g.,did the member like the locations/destinations, the accommodations, theairlines, the restaurants, the activities, etc.). Moreover, if a travelobjective was provided as a location-based ad or suggestion, asdescribed above, and the provided travel objective was verified asutilized by the user, the platform may request a review of theorganization, service, etc., associated with the utilized travelobjection suggestion.

In accordance with aspects, once feedback is provided, the platform canuse comments and feedback as input to AI-ML models (e.g., contentmoderation/curation machine learning models) to generate scoring foritinerary line items and or travel objective offers. Feedback may alsoinclude images that can be scanned and provided as input to ML DeepNeural Networks models for facial expressions and/or items that couldindicate potential preference for brands and object types. For instance,if a platform user is identified wearing one or more dresses in multipleimages, and the manufacture of the dresses can be determined bycomparing the image to merchant data sets, then dresses of thosemerchants can be marketed to the user. Alternatively dresses in generalcan be marketed.

Scoring may be order appropriate. That is, the platform may determinethe overall quality of a provided review. For instance, the platform maydetermine whether verbiage provided in a review is positive or negative,whether the review is thorough or terse, etc. Tree/classificationweighting may be applied to classifications such that classification ofa review in one or more classes by the ML model may result in a scoreassociated with the review that indicates that the review is relativelymore (or less) valuable to the travel platform provider and/or partnersof the travel platform provider.

For example, a review may be included as an input feature dataset to acuration content ML model. The model may have been trained on historicalreview content and may build trees that classify content in variousclasses. Classes may include sentiment classes (e.g., is the tonepositive or negative, is there inappropriate or offensive language),length classes (e.g., is the review too long, too short, or anacceptably summarizing length), applicability (e.g., is the reviewapplicable to the corresponding travel objective), etc.

The ML model and/or the collaboration space may be configured to assigna value score based on the combined weights of various classificationsof a user-provided review. For example, a review may be passed throughone or more ML models that classify the review with respect tosentiment, length, and applicability. The review may be classified intoclasses for each of the respective that have been heavily weighted. Thatis, the review may be classified as into a positive sentiment class, anacceptable length class, and a high applicability class. The platformmay aggregate the class weights into a high relative value score—i.e., ascore that indicates that the review will be very valuable to platformusers and/or to partner providers of the service for which the reviewwas written. Alternatively, if a modeled review is classified as into aninappropriate sentiment class, a too-long class, and an irrelevantclass, then the platform may aggregate a low relative value score basedon under-weighting of these classes in the model configuration.

In accordance with aspects, the platform may further determine how theuser will allow the review to be used. The platform may prompt the user,e.g., via a planning interface, for an indication, selection, etc., ofhow the user will allow the content to be used, with whom the platformprovider may share the content, etc. Reward points (e.g., unifiedpoints) may be provided at different rates based on the allowableusage/sharing indicated by the user.

For example, if a user indicates that provided review content may bepublished/used only within the platform provider's organization, thenthe review will earn n number of reward points. Alternatively, if theuser indicates that provided review content may be published/used withinother affiliated channels (e.g., lodging channels airline channels,etc.), then the review will earn n points plus an additional number ofpoints, or some other calculated or predetermined amount of points. Ifthe user allows for resale of the review, another calculation orpredetermined number of points may be earned by the review.

The travel platform may maintain a table for pricing reviews that a userindicates can be sold, and the table may reflect a review price that iscorrelated with a relative value score assigned to the review by themodel/platform. For instance, a review with a high relative value scoremay be priced higher than a review with a medium or low relative valuescore. The platform may sell the scored reviews to any acceptable buyer.

Further, the quality of the review as determined by AI-ML processing ofthe platform, may be factored in the amount of reward points awarded fora given review. In this way, the platform provider may incentivizeplatform users to provide and make available reviews having highrelative value scores. The collaboration service may maintain a tableincluding relative value scores and corresponding unified pointofferings. The table may further include a multiplier that correspondswith a usage selection. For instance, a if a user chooses to allow theplatform to resell the review, then the unified points award may bemultiplied by 2.0. If the user allows the partner provider to use thereview, then the unified points award may be multiplied by 1.5. If theuser only selects to allow the platform to use the review, then theunified point award may be multiplied by 1.0.

All reviews, scores, points, etc., provided to and generated by theplatform with respect to travel objectives may be stored by the platformin a data store and in a profile of the providing user. In accordancewith aspects, the review content may be further used to update theuser's profile in order to enhance travel service and other offers madeto the user, e.g., in the platform collaboration space, and in iterativeand recursive training of the curation content ML model.

FIG. 6 is a logical flow for curated content classification, inaccordance with aspects.

Step 605 includes providing one or more curation content machinelearning models, where the one or more curation content machine learningmodels are configured to classify a textual review into a plurality ofclassifications, and where the plurality of classifications have beenassigned respective relative weights.

Step 610 includes receiving, at a collaboration service, a user reviewof a travel objective from a user of the collaboration service.

Step 615 includes providing the review as an input feature dataset tothe one or more curation content machine learning models.

Step 620 includes receiving, as output of the one or more curationcontent machine learning models, a plurality of classifications of theuser review.

Step 625 includes aggregating, by the collaboration service, a relativevalue score based on the assigned relative weight of the plurality ofclassifications of the user review.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computing device for implementing certainaspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 depicts exemplary computingdevice 700. Computing device 700 may represent hardware that executesthe logic that drives the various system components described herein.For example, system components such as a collaboration server, a webinterface, gateway servers, machine learning engines, point conversionengines, and database servers may include, and execute on, componentsand configurations like, or similar to, computing device 700. Computingdevice 700 includes a processor 703 coupled to a memory 706. Memory 706may include volatile memory. The processor 703 executescomputer-executable program code stored in memory 706, such as softwareprograms 715. Software programs 715 may include one or more of thelogical steps disclosed herein as a programmatic instruction, which canbe executed by processor 703. Memory 706 may also include datarepository 705, which may be nonvolatile memory for data persistence.The processor 703 and the memory 706 may be coupled by a bus 709. Insome examples, the bus 709 may also be coupled to one or more networkinterface connectors 717, such as wired network interface 419, and/orwireless network interface 721. Computing device 700 may also have userinterface components, such as a screen for displaying graphical userinterfaces and receiving input from the user, a mouse, a keyboard and/orother input/output components (not shown).

The various processing steps and/or data flows depicted in the figuresand described in greater detail herein may be accomplished using some orall of the system components also described herein. In someimplementations, the described logical steps may be performed indifferent sequences and various steps may be omitted. Additional stepsmay be performed along with some, or all of the steps shown in thedepicted logical flow diagrams. Some steps may be performedsimultaneously. Accordingly, the logical flows illustrated in thefigures and described in greater detail herein are meant to be exemplaryand, as such, should not be viewed as limiting. These logical flows maybe implemented in the form of executable instructions stored on amachine-readable storage medium and executed by a micro-processor and/orin the form of statically or dynamically programmed electroniccircuitry.

Hereinafter, general aspects of implementation of the systems andmethods of the invention will be described.

The system of the invention or portions of the system of the inventionmay be in the form of a “processing machine,” such as a general-purposecomputer, for example. As used herein, the term “processing machine” isto be understood to include at least one processor that uses at leastone memory. The at least one memory stores a set of instructions. Theinstructions may be either permanently or temporarily stored in thememory or memories of the processing machine. The processor executes theinstructions that are stored in the memory or memories in order toprocess data. The set of instructions may include various instructionsthat perform a particular task or tasks, such as those tasks describedabove. Such a set of instructions for performing a particular task maybe characterized as a program, software program, or simply software. Inone aspect, the processing machine may be a specialized processor.

As noted above, the processing machine executes the instructions thatare stored in the memory or memories to process data. This processing ofdata may be in response to commands by a user or users of the processingmachine, in response to previous processing, in response to a request byanother processing machine and/or any other input, for example. Theprocessing machine used to implement the invention may utilize asuitable operating system, and instructions may come directly orindirectly from the operating system.

As noted above, the processing machine used to implement the inventionmay be a general-purpose computer. However, the processing machinedescribed above may also utilize any of a wide variety of othertechnologies including a special purpose computer, a computer systemincluding, for example, a microcomputer, mini-computer or mainframe, aprogrammed microprocessor, a micro-controller, a peripheral integratedcircuit element, a CSIC (Customer Specific Integrated Circuit) or ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or other integrated circuit, alogic circuit, a digital signal processor, a programmable logic devicesuch as a FPGA, PLD, PLA or PAL, or any other device or arrangement ofdevices that is capable of implementing the steps of the processes ofthe invention.

It is appreciated that in order to practice the method of the inventionas described above, it is not necessary that the processors and/or thememories of the processing machine be physically located in the samegeographical place. That is, each of the processors and the memoriesused by the processing machine may be located in geographically distinctlocations and connected so as to communicate in any suitable manner.Additionally, it is appreciated that each of the processor and/or thememory may be composed of different physical pieces of equipment.Accordingly, it is not necessary that the processor be one single pieceof equipment in one location and that the memory be another single pieceof equipment in another location. That is, it is contemplated that theprocessor may be two pieces of equipment in two different physicallocations. The two distinct pieces of equipment may be connected in anysuitable manner. Additionally, the memory may include two or moreportions of memory in two or more physical locations.

To explain further, processing, as described above, is performed byvarious components and various memories. However, it is appreciated thatthe processing performed by two distinct components as described abovemay, in accordance with a further aspect of the invention, be performedby a single component. Further, the processing performed by one distinctcomponent as described above may be performed by two distinctcomponents. In a similar manner, the memory storage performed by twodistinct memory portions as described above may, in accordance with afurther aspect of the invention, be performed by a single memoryportion. Further, the memory storage performed by one distinct memoryportion as described above may be performed by two memory portions.

Further, various technologies may be used to provide communicationbetween the various processors and/or memories, as well as to allow theprocessors and/or the memories of the invention to communicate with anyother entity, i.e., so as to obtain further instructions or to accessand use remote memory stores, for example. Such technologies used toprovide such communication might include a network, the Internet,Intranet, Extranet, LAN, an Ethernet, wireless communication via celltower or satellite, or any client server system that providescommunication, for example. Such communications technologies may use anysuitable protocol such as TCP/IP, UDP, or OSI, for example.

As described above, a set of instructions may be used in the processingof the invention. The set of instructions may be in the form of aprogram or software. The software may be in the form of system softwareor application software, for example. The software might also be in theform of a collection of separate programs, a program module within alarger program, or a portion of a program module, for example. Thesoftware used might also include modular programming in the form ofobject-oriented programming. The software tells the processing machinewhat to do with the data being processed.

Further, it is appreciated that the instructions or set of instructionsused in the implementation and operation of the invention may be in asuitable form such that the processing machine may read theinstructions. For example, the instructions that form a program may bein the form of a suitable programming language, which is converted tomachine language or object code to allow the processor or processors toread the instructions. That is, written lines of programming code orsource code, in a particular programming language, are converted tomachine language using a compiler, assembler or interpreter. The machinelanguage is binary coded machine instructions that are specific to aparticular type of processing machine, i.e., to a particular type ofcomputer, for example. The computer understands the machine language.

Any suitable programming language may be used in accordance with thevarious aspects of the invention. Illustratively, the programminglanguage used may include assembly language, Ada, APL, Basic, C, C++,COBOL, dBase, Forth, Fortran, Java, Modula-2, Pascal, Prolog, REXX,Visual Basic, and/or JavaScript, for example. Further, it is notnecessary that a single type of instruction or single programminglanguage be utilized in conjunction with the operation of the system andmethod of the invention. Rather, any number of different programminglanguages may be utilized as is necessary and/or desirable.

Also, the instructions and/or data used in the practice of the inventionmay utilize any compression or encryption technique or algorithm, as maybe desired. An encryption module might be used to encrypt data. Further,files or other data may be decrypted using a suitable decryption module,for example.

As described above, the invention may illustratively be embodied in theform of a processing machine, including a computer or computer system,for example, that includes at least one memory. It is to be appreciatedthat the set of instructions, i.e., the software for example, thatenables the computer operating system to perform the operationsdescribed above may be contained on any of a wide variety of media ormedium, as desired. Further, the data that is processed by the set ofinstructions might also be contained on any of a wide variety of mediaor medium. That is, the particular medium, i.e., the memory in theprocessing machine, utilized to hold the set of instructions and/or thedata used in the invention may take on any of a variety of physicalforms or transmissions, for example. Illustratively, the medium may bein the form of a compact disk, a DVD, an integrated circuit, a harddisk, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, a RAM, a ROM, aPROM, an EPROM, a wire, a cable, a fiber, a communications channel, asatellite transmission, a memory card, a SIM card, or other remotetransmission, as well as any other medium or source of data that may beread by the processors of the invention.

Further, the memory or memories used in the processing machine thatimplements the invention may be in any of a wide variety of forms toallow the memory to hold instructions, data, or other information, as isdesired. Thus, the memory might be in the form of a database to holddata. The database might use any desired arrangement of files such as aflat file arrangement or a relational database arrangement, for example.

In the system and method of the invention, a variety of “userinterfaces” may be utilized to allow a user to interface with theprocessing machine or machines that are used to implement the invention.As used herein, a user interface includes any hardware, software, orcombination of hardware and software used by the processing machine thatallows a user to interact with the processing machine. A user interfacemay be in the form of a dialogue screen for example. A user interfacemay also include any of a mouse, touch screen, keyboard, keypad, voicereader, voice recognizer, dialogue screen, menu box, list, checkbox,toggle switch, a pushbutton or any other device that allows a user toreceive information regarding the operation of the processing machine asit processes a set of instructions and/or provides the processingmachine with information. Accordingly, the user interface is any devicethat provides communication between a user and a processing machine. Theinformation provided by the user to the processing machine through theuser interface may be in the form of a command, a selection of data, orsome other input, for example.

As discussed above, a user interface is utilized by the processingmachine that performs a set of instructions such that the processingmachine processes data for a user. The user interface is typically usedby the processing machine for interacting with a user either to conveyinformation or receive information from the user. However, it should beappreciated that in accordance with some aspects of the system andmethod of the invention, it is not necessary that a human user actuallyinteract with a user interface used by the processing machine of theinvention. Rather, it is also contemplated that the user interface ofthe invention might interact, i.e., convey and receive information, withanother processing machine, rather than a human user. Accordingly, theother processing machine might be characterized as a user. Further, itis contemplated that a user interface utilized in the system and methodof the invention may interact partially with another processing machineor processing machines, while also interacting partially with a humanuser.

It will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art thatthe present invention is susceptible to broad utility and application.Many aspects and adaptations of the present invention other than thoseherein described, as well as many variations, modifications, andequivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggestedby the present invention and foregoing description thereof, withoutdeparting from the substance or scope of the invention.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been described here indetail in relation to its exemplary aspects, it is to be understood thatthis disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the presentinvention and is made to provide an enabling disclosure of theinvention. Accordingly, the foregoing disclosure is not intended to beconstrued or to limit the present invention or otherwise to exclude anyother such aspects, adaptations, variations, modifications, orequivalent arrangements.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: providing, in acollaboration space, a point conversion interface; passing, via thepoint conversion interface, user credentials to a third-party pointissuer; receiving, via the point conversion interface and from thethird-party point issuer, a number of points, wherein the number ofpoints is associated with the user credentials; multiplying the numberof points by a conversion factor, wherein the multiplying produces anumber of unified points, wherein the conversion factor is retrievedfrom the third-party point issuer in real time; storing the number ofunified points as an integer value in a datastore, wherein the number ofunified points are stored in the datastore with a first relationshippointer to the collaboration space, and a second relationship pointer toa contributing user of the collaboration space; processing the number ofpoints associated with the user credentials as input data to a machinelearning model; weighting a first classification of a plurality ofpredicted travel objective classifications of the machine learning modelwith a greater relative weight based on a condition in a variable of acorresponding tree of the first classification indicating that the inputdata includes the number of points associated with the user credentials;crediting a points pool associated with the collaboration space, withthe number of unified points; and receiving, at the collaboration spaceand from the contributing user of the collaboration space, aninstruction to apply the number of unified points to a travel objective,wherein the travel objective is included on a digital itinerary providedby the collaboration space.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein eachunified point of the number of unified points is associated with a fiatmonetary value.
 3. The method of claim 1 comprising: receiving, asoutput of the machine learning model, a predicted travel objective thathas been classified in the first classification by the machine learningmodel.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of planning groupmembers are associated with the collaboration space.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the point conversion interface comprises an applicationprogramming interface (API).
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein a secondcontributing user is a planning group member.
 7. The method of claim 5,wherein the point conversion interface exposes a plurality of APImethods.
 8. A system comprising one or more computer processors, whereinthe one or more computer processors are configured to: provide, in acollaboration space, a point conversion interface; pass, via the pointconversion interface, user credentials to a third-party point issuer;receive, via the point conversion interface and from the third-partypoint issuer, a number of points, wherein the number of points isassociated with the user credentials; multiply the number of points by aconversion factor, wherein the multiplying produces a number of unifiedpoints, wherein the conversion factor is retrieved from the third-partypoint issuer in real time; store the number of unified points as ininteger value in a datastore, wherein the number of unified points arestored in the datastore with a first relationship pointer to thecollaboration space, and a second relationship pointer to a contributinguser of the collaboration space; process the number of points associatedwith the user credentials as input data to a machine learning model;weight a first classification of a plurality of predicted travelobjective classifications of the machine learning model with a greaterrelative weight based on a condition in a variable of a correspondingtree of the first classification indicating that the input data includesthe number of points associated with the user credentials; credit apoints pool associated with the collaboration space, with the number ofunified points; and receive, at the collaboration space and from thecontributing user of the collaboration space, an instruction to applythe number of unified points to a travel objective, wherein the travelobjective is included on a digital itinerary provided by thecollaboration space.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein each unifiedpoint of the number of unified points is associated with a fiat monetaryvalue.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more computerprocessors are configured to receive, as output of the machine learningmodel, a predicted travel objective that has been classified in thefirst classification by the machine learning model.
 11. The system ofclaim 8, wherein a plurality of planning group members are associatedwith the collaboration space.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein thepoint conversion interface comprises an application programminginterface (API).
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the pointconversion interface exposes a plurality of API methods.
 14. The systemof claim 11, wherein a second contributing user is a planning groupmember.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, includinginstructions stored thereon, which instructions, when read and executedby one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computerprocessors to perform steps comprising: providing, in a collaborationspace, a point conversion interface; passing, via the point conversioninterface, user credentials to a third-party point issuer; receiving,via the point conversion interface and from the third-party pointissuer, a number of points, wherein the number of points is associatedwith the user credentials; multiplying the number of points by aconversion factor, wherein the multiplying produces a number of unifiedpoints, wherein the conversion factor is retrieved from the third-partypoint issuer in real time; storing the number of unified points as aninteger value in a datastore, wherein the number of unified points arestored in the datastore with a first relationship pointer to thecollaboration space, and a second relationship pointer to a contributinguser of the collaboration space; processing the number of pointsassociated with the user credentials as input data to a machine learningmodel; weighting a first classification of a plurality of predictedtravel objective classifications of the machine learning model with agreater relative weight based on a condition in a variable of acorresponding tree of the first classification indicating that the inputdata includes the number of points associated with the user credentials;crediting a points pool associated with the collaboration space, withthe number of unified points; and receiving, at the collaboration spaceand from the contributing user of the collaboration space, aninstruction to apply the number of unified points to a travel objective,wherein the travel objective is included on a digital itinerary providedby the collaboration space.
 16. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein each unified point of the number ofunified points is associated with a fiat monetary value.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising:receiving, as output of the machine learning model, a predicted travelobjective that has been classified in the first classification by themachine learning model.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein a plurality of planning group members areassociated with the collaboration space.
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 18, wherein a second contributing useris a planning group member.
 20. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the point conversion interfacecomprises an application programming interface (API), and wherein thepoint conversion interface exposes a plurality of API methods.